The establishment and maintenance of sterile fields during surgical procedures is of the utmost importance, with swift and full recovery otherwise at risk. The sterility of a surgical procedure is only as good as its weakest link.
A great number of surgical procedures require sterile liquids to be maintained and used to lower or raise body cavity temperatures. Numerous methods and apparatuses for heating and cooling sterile surgical liquids and collecting sterile surgical slush are known in the art.
Methods of providing sterile surgical slush typically involve the scraping of congealed sterile liquid from a sterile liquid basin, more particularly from a basin conform ing surgical drape lining such a basin. As scraping methods generally jeopardize the integrity of the sterile field vis-a-vis the potential damage to the surgical drape, improved methods have focused upon indirectly breaking up the congealed liquid adhered to the drape (i.e., lifting or otherwise agitating the drape to dislodge congealed liquid). Although the risk of surgical drape leaks has been greatly reduced via indirect dislodging techniques, no means were provided to otherwise prevent damage to the surgical drape, as for instance by heating or cooling a "dry" basin, and thereby insure the integrity of the sterile field.
Techniques for preventing damage to surgical drapes and to heating and cooling mechanisms used in conjunction with apparatus for containing and thermally treating sterile liquid all require the sensing of environmental conditions external to the sterile field (e.g., temperature, conductivity, etc.). Heretofore surgical drapes have been outfitted with a variety of sensors, all having a drape plug connector (i.e., a conventional plug having socket receiving pins) positioned at a terminal end opposite the sensing element. The drape plug connectors are integral to the drapes, being attached by insertion through a grommet filled hole in the surgical drape, or by using conventional snap fasteners in combination with holders carried by the drape.
Drape plug connectors are noted to be cumbersome in the surgical room, expensive to manufacture, and subject to breaches about the grommet (i.e., more generally the interface of the plug with the drape), thereby compromising the established sterile field. Furthermore, such connectors lack the versatile required in the variety of applications confronting surgical teams.
Accordingly, it is therefore advantageous and desirable to provide a surgical drape having an unadorned wire lead traversing through sterile and non-sterile fields without comprising sterility, and an inexpensive method of producing same.
It is likewise advantageous and desirable to provide a surgical drape having a laminate structure about an electrode site that permits passage of a wire lead through sterile and non-sterile fields without comprising established sterility.
It is further beneficial and desirable to provide a surgical drape having a laminate structure about an electrode site from which portions of a drape traversing electrode extend such that connections can be made through sterile and non-sterile fields without comprising established sterility.
Similarly, it is desirous to provide a surgical drape having a reinforcingly secured wire lead traversing through sterile and non-sterile fields at an electrode site without comprising established sterility.